Picture: Some of the Free HD TV content you can download from the US iTunes Music Store.

Lets delve deeper into this whole Apple HD TV content thing.

File Size: If you purchase any HD TV content from the US iTunes store you will also receive the iPod friendly version of the content. In the example below that would consist of a 1.64gb file and a separate 640mb file. A total of 2.2gb per episode. If your chosen show had 24 episodes a season that’s a 54.72gb download in total.

This presents two problems 1) You need to download that. Think bandwidth caps and putting up with slow Internet while it does it. 2) You need to store the content for in theory as long as you want to keep it.

Technical Details:

Video Codec: H.264
Resolution: 1280×720
Total Bitrate: 4439kbps

Video Quality: The 720 HD content looks a whole lot better than the 480 equivalent for sure but is it stunning? No, Don’t get me wrong it’s good, especially on a laptop or PC monitor in a window, but on a large 1080p TV the imperfections of compressed video are evident.

I can be very critical when it comes to video quality. I am sure half the time I am watching blu ray movies I am just looking for flaws in the transfer. So to recap it’s good but not perfect.

Tip: If you have a 1080p display and are distracted by image tear on the top section of the screen, try dropping down your resolution to something closer to the resolution of the video clip.

Audio: Some of the HD content comes with two audio streams  plain old stereo and the other a surround sound version.

Cost: $2.99 is the initial cost per episode but factor in the cost of storing the content and bumping up against any download caps on your Internet connection.

Tip: Download at night its the only way particularly with when you get into the 20 to 50 gig sessions.

Summary

It’s great having essentially an on demand HD content distribution system. The only competition is from from your Satellite or Cable company.

An Argument could be made that future generations will just cherry pick their content instead of buying 400 channels of content they have very little interest in.

So this business model is here to stay. In 5-10 years time it will be funny to re-read this post watching me complaining about file size, download speed and caps.

Yesterdays product announcement went pretty much as expected on the iPod Nano front.

These are sort of cool but I’m much more of an iPod Touch kind of guy. Video on a small screen just becomes annoying after a while.

The updated iPod Touch isn’t enough of an improvement to make me contemplate an upgrade. The additions of a volume control and speaker are nice but it doesn’t really make much odds to me.

The iPod touch is still a marvel to me. Here is what I do with mine:-

Listen to Music
Watch Video
Stream TV from BBC iPlayer
Stream Audio from AOL Radio
Read Twitter and my Gmail Email
Play Games and Apps
Read the New York Times

As well as all the standard things like Maps, Web sites and Pictures. The iPod Touch is more a computer than a Video playing mp3 player. It’s expensive but ultimately worth it.

The good news from yesterday is the Addition of HD TV content in their main store. Prior to this the only HD content available from Apple was locked to the Apple TV infrastructure, and that was movies and not TV.

Now you have the choice to download some TV Shows in 480p ($1.99) or 720p ($2.99).

Much like a drug dealer offering the first hit for free Apple are now offering free downloads of 10  episodes in HD from the likes of Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, Monk and more to showcase the HD content in the iTunes music store.

When you buy an HD episode you get both the HD and SD versions (one for your TV one for your iPod).

It’s nice to have the choice of quality and price points. But as I have said before paying extra for HD just feels like a tax.

Sadly if you are a UK resident don’t get too excited as none of this HD goodness seems to have filtered through to us.

Today Apple announced that the iTunes music store has now sold over 5 Billions songs.

As if that wasn’t enough they are now the No.1 Music retailer in the US.

I can’t be bothered to complain about DRM/Quality or Cost.

No I look on today as a tiny bit of history.

Vinyl > Tape > CD > Download.

Bricks and Mortar > Digital.

Game over Cupertino wins.

By the time my Kids grow up and want to purchase music the world will be a different place.

By far and away the best digital distribution model available today is offered by Steam. If I buy a game from Steam I can play it on any computer I sign into and install the Steam client on.

This iTunes model of Download, License, Backup or Else is just plain dumb in comparison.

I would imagine a subscription based model is the next big thing.

Link: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/19itunes.html

I am unlikely to be a regular purchaser or renter of movies from the iTunes music store. The reason for that is I am a bit of a snob when it comes to the video presentation of movies etc.

I did however want to evaluate the user experience.

I chose a film I wanted to see but didn’t have in any other format.

I am a big Chris Rock fan so I chose his movie Down to Earth.

The 1.02gb download came down in 50 Minutes on my ADSL Max connection. I have an 8mb connection but acts more like a 4mb one.

As you can see from the screen dump the audio is just plain stereo with a video resolution of 853×480. The video carries a 1663kbps bitrate.

Quality

The video quality is only really good enough for playing in a Window (853×480) or on an iPod/iPhone. As soon as you go full screen on any large screen display it starts to get ugly.

So I would say this would be better suited to people who are happy to watch the content on a portable device. Think teenagers or commuters.

Cost

Next up is the cost (£6.99 from iTunes). I could have picked up the DVD of this movie for £4.97. The bare bones DVD would have been better video quality and  have a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

The US store sells the same movie for $9.99 or £5.11. So the UK consumer is once again paying more.

In my eyes the sweet spot on pricing would be £3.99 to own or £1.99 to rent. Once again if I can get better quality at a lower price point then I will.

Convenience

Obviously iTunes wins hands down.

Summary

So I like having the choice of being able to quickly access an online store and in some rare occurrences this might come in handy. Example a  rainy day or if I were stuck in a hotel while travelling. However as I said at the start of the post this isn’t really for me.

Tip: As with all content you purchase from iTunes you are responsible for backing it up.

Today Apple launched Movies into their iTunes music store in the UK. You can:

Purchase Movies from between £6.99-£10.99 or Rent from £2.49-£3.49

They also offer 720p Hi-Def Movies but these require you to have and AppleTV.

Their implementation of Hi-Def is flawed. You need their hardware and the content is 720p/1080i only as I understand it.

This is semi-understandable as 1080p content is just too fat to fit down the Internet pipes we have today.

The non HD content is more geared up for the iPod generation who want to watch content on their video enabled iPods/iPhones.

The UK is now no longer the poor digital relative.

If the Apple Software Update box is annoying by offering the Safari Web browser go into Tools > Ignore selected Updates.

I am really pleased that the proliferation of legal downloadable content is on the increase in the UK.

Our American cousins have it way better than we do with new movies and TV shows.

However in Europe the way content is licensed we are essentially locked out. So our digital revolution hasn’t really started (yet).

Its like the dawn of the TV all over again with only 3 channels to chose from.

Some decent content is slowly appearing but look how they hamstring us further.

Apple’s iTunes Music Store

£41.58 for the entire 22 episodes (£1.89 per Episode)

Play.com Internet Retailer for the DVD Version

£17.99 for the entire 22 episodes on DVD (£0.82 per Episode)

What you also need to bare in mind is the quality of the iTunes version will be far below that of the DVD version.

Typically their content is H.264 with a resolution of 640×360 with a bitrate of 1540kbps.

That’s fine for a video clip on a computer window or iPod but looks terrible on a TV.

Additionally you lose out on special features with the iTunes digital version things like: Dolby Digital, making of’s and commentary tracks.

So in summary the digital version in the UK is 56% more expensive than the DVD based equivalent. To make things worse its of inferior quality. How dumb do they think we are?

The problem is with the episode price point of £1.89 in the US store the price is $1.99 so about a £1

This show is in the US sells for $37.99 or £19.20

In the UK for this to viable from a consumer point of view the cost per episode needs to be £0.99 or less. Then having the convenience of a digital download might make sense. As it is today this pricing is just a rip off.

When you download an application you should be given the full disclosure about what is being installed on your equipment and given some options/choices.

If you download the latest version of iTunes for Windows what you are really installing is:-

iTunes
Quicktime
Apple Mobile Device Support
Apple Software Update
Bonjour

If you decide to uninstall you are faced with 5 separate uninstall’s from the control panel add/remove programs.

Nice touch for a user who changes their mind. A unified uninstaller would be welcome.

To cap this off the Apple Software Updater then suggests the additional download of the Apple Web Browser Safari 3.1.

The motive behind the web browser install is ad revenue. Apple have an inroad to 100m windows PC’s. How very opportunistic of them!

Where do Apple draw the line on this issue?

You may think why does this matter?  I look after hundreds of PC’s and I care what gets installed right under my nose.

Take Bonjour for example. This is Apples networking protocol that makes connecting devices easier (PC’s and Mac’s)  It operates on UDP Port 5353. Now as a network admin what if someone were to design an exploit that does something bad with Bonjour for Windows.

Do I now have to wait on Apple to fix it or run around frantically getting it uninstalled. I hope I don’t have to find out.

Dealing with Microsoft security is bad enough. Do I really need to worry about drive by installs from Apple, a company that really should know better.

For those who like a conspiracy theory why is Bonjour in this software bundle in the first place?  Why now?  I suspect we will find out in 10 months time at the Macworld 2009 keynote. But it doesn’t take a genius to see it has to do with networking PC’s and Macs.

I like to watch these just for Steve Jobs presentation style.

You can see the stream here: Mac World 2008. Watch the Keynote

But as PC user you would be amazed how much Apple is becoming part of your digital life.

Things I liked this year..

The MacBook Air: this looks fantastic and I am a fan of really slim laptops. I used to be a Dell X300 owner and that was really thin and one of my favourite laptops.

So I am looking forward to reading some peer reviews because as nice as it looks there must be some pitfalls. Example 1 USB port sounds really limiting but I guess I am not thinking wireless enough.

Above is the Dell X300 I used a few years ago. I miss it, but hey now Dell can build the next generation super thin laptop now the shrunk down Core2Duo chip exists.

Digital Media

Charging iPod Touch users for applications doesn’t seem very cool or Apple like.

iTunes

Ok movie rental downloads have arrived in the iTunes music store.

In the US you can now rent and download movies via iTunes. You have 30 days to keep them on your computer but only 24 hours to watch them once you hit play.

Basically what is happening to digital music will probably happen for movies over time (10+ years). The one problem I have with the digital rental model is I like to own not rent. I wouldn’t consider renting digital music for example and I feel the same way about movies.

I want companies to stop telling me what I can and cant do with the digital content I pay for.

But no doubt the rental model is very convenient.

So I imagine in the future that a two tier model will exist.

1) The disposable digital rental.

2) The Disc based Full Hi-Def version 1080p

I can live with that.

Kudos to Apple for offering HD-Def content with Dolby Digital 5.1 but they lose the kudos for charging more for the privilege. Hi-Def Downloads are $1 more expensive. That would be the Hi-Def tax I keep talking about.

This is still a long way off and is complicated in Europe by how movie’s are marketed and sold via distributors.

Podcasts are an excellent resource for both entertainment and educational content. Almost all podcasts are free. Note you do not need an iPod to listen to Podcasts, just a PC or Mac with iTunes installed.

What is podcasting Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

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If you’re a North West based business looking help and advice with new technology then get in touch I can help you. Tel: 01606-841587.

Please feel free to link to this content, I update regularly.

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Thanks

Colin